Roads Less Traveled Italy
Sustainable Independent Off The Beaten Path Travel To Italy For All Budgets
Several years ago, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Perugia, in Umbria, to study Italian at the Università per Stranieri. Living in Seattle, and loving all things Italian, I had become a member of the Seattle Perugia Sister City Association and eventually was awarded a scholarship from the association that helped to make this happen. It was the culmination of a dream!
Traveling by bus from Rome, I’ll always remember the fields of sunflowers blooming everywhere in late June. After months of copious planning, I was finally arriving! I had managed to score an incredible apartment very close to the university that turned out to be even lovelier than the photos of it. After a day or so of settling in, which included multiple trips up and down the stone steps leading to the Centro Storico, I went to register and take the pretest that would tell me which level of class I’d be in and what my schedule would be. (This was an incredibly nerve-wracking experience for someone who hadn’t taken an exam in numerous years.)
Studying Italian in Perugia, Umbria March 24, 2021
Not surprisingly, at that point in my studies, my knowledge of grammar was far superior to my actual ability to speak Italian, but that would all change in my month in Perugia. The good news was that all of my classes were in the mornings, allowing me freedom to explore every afternoon. My days soon fell into a rhythm. Some days, I wandered the streets of Perugia, finding out of the way gems such as Tempio di Sant’Angelo, the city’s amazing stained glass and weaving workshops, and the Capello di San Severo, with its marvelous fresco by Raphael and Perugino. On other days, I dubbed myself the “queen of the fieldtrips” hopping a bus to the train station right after class and taking off on whatever exploration struck my fancy.
Highlights for me were Orvieto, with likely the most beautiful cathedral I’ve ever seen, Spello, with its winding cobbled streets filled with flower boxes, and Castiglione del Lago on Lake Trasimeno, where I walked through and around the castle ramparts and took a ferry to Isola Maggiore for a stroll in nature that was punctuated by happening upon the Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo, a 13th century chapel filled with frescos.
I also got a good dose of what it might be like to live in Italy for a longer period of time. Taking the “Minimetro” all around town, I carried a tote bag in my daypack wherever I went, allowing me to do small amounts of grocery shopping on the fly. I learned that it was better to buy everything fresh and to plan to shop every few days. And I began shopping like a local, buying a normal sized jar of black truffle sauce to use in my pasta, versus a tiny jar at the “specialty products” store in the center of town. Wine was also a revelation! Unless you have a highly trained palate, which I don’t, the grocery store wines for 3 euros tasted fantastic with my bowl of pasta or porchetta sandwich.
For anyone wanting to learn to speak Italian, I highly recommend finding a language school in the city of your dreams, renting an apartment, and giving yourself that month to be immersed in the language and culture. It was an absolute game changer for me!